Improvement in station and street indicator for railroad-cars



PATENT EEICE.

ALEXANDRE BERTIER, OF HANNIBAL, MISSURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN STATION AND STREET INDICATOR FOR RAILROAD-CARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent- NO. 38,14 3, dated April 14, 1863.

To all whom it may concern Be it known lthat I, ALEXANDRE BE aTiER, of Hannibal, in the county of Marion and State of Missiouri, have invented a new and Improved Station and Street Indicator for Railroad-Cars; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ot' the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a side view of a railroad-car, partly in section, with my invention applied to it; Fig. 2, a transverse vertical section of the same, taken in the line xm, Fig. l. Fig. 3 is also a transverse vertical section ot" the same, taken in the same line, x a', as Fig. 2, but looking in the opposite direction; Fig. 4, a detached view ot' a part pertaining to the invention.

Similar letters ot' reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

This invention consists in the employment or use of au endless band, having the names of the stations or streets marked upon it, and placed within a suitable case Within the car, in combination with a bell, acombined bellhammer and stop, and a band-movin g mech auistn, all arranged as hereinafter described, whereby the several stations or streets will, as they are reached, each be indicated or shown to the passengers in the car, and an alarm sounded, so as direct the attention of the passengers to the indicator.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct my invention, Iwill proceed to describe it.

A represents a railroadcar, which may be of the usual or any proper construction, and B B represent the rails on which the car runs.

C is a case, which is placed in the car at one end of it, and has two rollers, D D', fitted in it, one being at the upper and the other at the lower part of the case, one roller being directly over the other, and both in the same I axial plane.

a extending through one side otl the car, and

on the outer end of said shaft there is placed,

side, and near one end of the upper roller, D,

there is secured a bell, F, andjust below said bell there is a springhammer, G, which may be constructed ot an elastic rod bent over backward at its inner or disengaging end, as shown at b, and then curved upward, as shown at c. (See Fig. 4.)

In the end ot' the roller D, which is near the bell and spring-hammer G, there are itted pins or rods d, at equal distances apart, near the periphery ot' thc roller. These pins or rods, when the roller I) is rotated, will strike the end b ot' the springhammer.

The end ot' the shat't a ot` the roller D which is opposite to the end where the star or pointed wheel E is secured passes through the side of the case G, and has a pulley, H, upon it, to which acord, e, is attached, said cord having a weight, I, at its end. (See Fig. 2

J is an upright post, which is placed at one side of the railroad, and has an arm, K, secured to its upper end by a pivot, f. The outer end otl this arm is connected to a spring, L, the lower end ot' which is attached to the post J. On the inner end the arm K-thatis to say, the end which extends toward the railroad-has a thimble or tube, M, tted loosely upon it. This thimble has such a relative position with the star or point wheel E that the arms of the latter will come in contact with the former as the car A passes the post J, and by this means the roller D and band E are moved, the names being at such a distance apart on the band E as to cause one to be brought in line with or directly opposite a slot in the front ofthe case C. Each time the band E is thus moved a pin or rod, d, of the roller D will strike the end b of the hammer G and force it down, and when the pin or rod to prevent the casual movement of the band E, the hammer being sufficiently stiff to resist the gravity of the Weight I. rlhe number of pins or rods d at the end of the roller Dis equal to the number of points or arms of the wheel E and I would remark that there is a post, J, placed at each side of the road or track h, so that the band maybe operated when the car is traveling,- in either direction.

In Figs. l and 3, a modification of the previously'described device is shown for a cityr railroad-car indicator. L is the band placed on rollers M h1', and having the naines or numbers of the streets marked on it. The band is placed Within a case, N, havin g a slot, g, in its front side to expose successively the names oi' the streets as VVthe' latter are reached. In this arrangement the star orpointed Wheel U is attached to the lower roller, M, and is actuated by a small projection, P, which will not serve as an obstruction in the street.

I do not claim the endless band separately,

`and all arranged to operate substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth. i

2. The Weight I, applied to one of the rollers of the endless band, when used in combination with the other parts of the' bandmoving mechanism, for the purpose specified.

ALEXANDRE BERTIER.

Witnesses WM. T. LEAGUE, W. R. LEAGUE. 

